Comparison of the best CPQ software

Wondering what CPQ stands for? Read our previous article.

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CPQ software can be an invaluable tool in any sales team’s repertoire. Nurturing a lead from prospect to customer is a lengthy process that can break down at any point, so there’s not much room for error.

CPQ tools help salespeople establish a personalized quote for every individual or group they interact with.

The right tool will guide your team through the sales process, from configuring variables such as size and materials, to pricing according to purchase volumes and company strategy, to the actual quote that takes all these factors into account.

In this guide, we’ll present the best solutions currently on the market and take a look at the most important aspects when choosing CPQ software.

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Top 7 CPQ software

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HubSpot Sales Hub CPQ

First up, we’re going to take a look at the HubSpot Sales Hub CPQ.

HubSpot’s CPQ prides itself on simplicity; the tools it offers are easy to use and cater to various business needs. The software is designed to be intuitive – even for sales reps with no prior experience of working with CPQ tools. The primary benefit of this is of course quick onboarding that saves you precious time and allows you to get up and running with your sales process quickly.

The standout features are the plethora of communication tools and automations which make everything more convenient for the sales team. With chat functionality, tracking and templates, it’s easy to stay in touch with customers and draw up quotes. The automation of various workflows ensures that sales reps don’t have to get caught up in trivial tasks so they can focus on customers.

As you can imagine, since HubSpot is primarily a marketing-focused SaaS platform, its Sales Hub CPQ software goes hand-in-hand with its Marketing Hub tool. As such, if your marketing team already uses HubSpot, then investing in the Sales Hub will allow for straightforward cross-functional collaboration between the marketing and sales departments. This can be particularly helpful for nurturing and scoring leads, as well as delivering the right content and measuring its impact. All your actions and data are stored on the same platform for easy access.

Where HubSpot may fall short is the depth of sales and quoting features, as there’s no ‘drag and drop’ quote editor or quote template for instance. Some users also complained about some features (e.g. quote approvals and eSignatures) being only available in the Enterprise plan, at the hefty starting price of $1,200/month.

Core target audience: SMBs that already use HubSpot as their Sales CRM

Pricing information: click here

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PandaDoc

PandaDoc is a specialized tool to create, track, and sign documents electronically, which is used by more than 30,000 SMBs.

Streamlining the quoting process is one of their most popular use cases.

Unlike HubSpot, PandaDoc is neither a sales CRM nor a marketing tool. Their core product is built around document automation, and you’ll need to connect your PandaDoc account to your existing CRM. They have many native integrations with the most popular CRMs (e.g. HubSpot, Salesforce, Omniscient, Pipedrive and Zoho).

As a result, their quoting feature set is more extensive than an all-in-one tool such as HubSpot, and includes: quote templates, a ‘drag and drop’ editor for quotes, the ability to track quotes and measure how fast they lead to a deal, workflows etc.

PandaDoc significantly cuts down the risk of errors that threaten to undermine a sale while streamlining the quoting process. The software allows you to generate CPQ momentum, which means you can take leads from interest to purchase much more effectively.

One of the main reasons why sales teams love PandaDoc is that it is powerful, customizable and ‘CRM-agnostic’: for instance, if you were to transition from Pipedrive or HubSpot (popular CRMs for SMBs) to Salesforce (more popular for enterprises), you could keep PandaDoc and the quoting logic you’ve configured inside it and plug it into Salesforce.

However, some companies have questioned the price of the software as some of the features are gated in the Enterprise plan (e.g. integration with Salesforce), which is a factor to take into consideration if you’re looking to keep your operational costs down.

Core target: SMBs

Pricing information: click here

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DealHub

DealHub is a platform that focuses on simplifying the CPQ process for SMBs. It’s very similar to PandaDoc, while being fully specialized on the CPQ process.

It helps sales teams secure deals with customers faster and more reliably. By automating your workflow and connecting to your CRM and product catalog, DealHub encourages fast conversions with accurate contracts that meet your quality standards and customization needs.

With DealHub, you can draw up NDAs, quotes, agreements and other types of documents in a variety of formats. You can also draw from their pool of templates which can cut out the risk of manual error during the sales process and ensures everything is done by the book.

However, the onboarding and configuration process can take some time and some customers claimed that the support during this process wasn’t as robust as it could be. In addition to this, the pricing could be more transparent.

Core target: SMBs

Pricing information: click here

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Proposify

Proposify is an intuitive CPQ tool that allows you to create proposals and build a reliable sales process, by tapping into the large library of pre-approved templates, images, and more.

When you use Proposify, you gain access to a variety of tools that will help you organize all of your sales materials from product descriptions to case studies, so everything is available when it’s time to seal the deal.

It’s a great fit for small businesses looking to automate their sales processes, such as proposal design and signing.

One of the downsides of the software is that it lacks native integrations with some major tools, as well as some exporting options, and the text editor has been reported to be a bit clunky. These aspects will probably be improved, so we encourage you to try it and see for yourself.

Core target: SMBs

Pricing information: click here

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Salesforce CPQ

Salesforce CPQ is one of the most well-known tools on the market, and rightly so. Built using the Salesforce CRM platform, this CPQ tool integrates with all the components of the software for a complete service that connects sales teams to customers.

As such, if you already use the Salesforce CRM, or are looking for both a CRM and a CPQ tool, then investing in the Salesforce platform could be the perfect solution.

As for what the Salesforce CPQ offers: it’s a robust tool that allows users to customize quotes and include discounts so that sales reps can quickly and easily submit tailored offers.

Some customers have raised issues with the usual downsides of Salesforce: high cost of software and high cost of implementation and maintenance. However, Salesforce CPQ remains the best solution for Enterprises, as long as your sales team and pipeline can justify the investment.

Core target: mid-market companies and enterprises that already use Salesforce CRM

Pricing information: click here

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Conga CPQ

Conga CPQ, a merger of Conga and Apptus, is built to help sales teams overcome complicated processes. It’s a great option for businesses looking to scale fast, and it serves as a virtual coach of sorts, guiding sales reps through the process from quote to signature.

The CPQ software automates processes and promotes optimal actions, which should in turn encourage your sales team to adopt best practices. It makes it possible to manage large volumes of complex quotes quickly and accurately. Conga CPQ is widely lauded for its ability to break down and digest large data sets.

Some customers claim that it can be a difficult tool to use at first, so there may be an initial learning curve.

Core target: mid-market companies

Pricing information: starts from $35/month/user – contact Conga for more information

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Zuora CPQ

Zuora CPQ is a tool designed to help your sales team stay on top of customer-focused quotes, regardless of the subscriptions, products, or services on offer. It’s also one of the only tools to allow quoting for the entire subscriber lifecycle, so you can set your sales team up for long-term success.

The CPQ offers a wide range of options and there are tools that the sales team can use for all types of subscription (e.g. evergreen or termed).

One of the most compelling reasons for choosing Zuora is for its seamless integration with Salesforce CRM. Many of its products were developed using the Salesforce developer platform, so if you already use Salesforce, Zuora will fit right in with your existing system.

Although it includes many interactive training guides, many customers claim that Zuora CPQ is still a complex tool that’s hard to master. For this reason, and given the high maintenance costs, Zuora is more suitable for enterprise-level companies than SMBs.

Core target: enterprises that use Salesforce CRM

Pricing information: contact Zuora for pricing information